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OMG! TARAH!!! She does it again! I absolutely loved this book. The perfect amount of both past and present pov's and in both characters!!!

The queen of spice & depth is back again with another delightful read. I really loved both LaRynn and Deacon and how they keep coming back to each other over & over again. This truly felt like the right person, wrong time and once they found their timing they were so so good together. Plus their spicy scenes were *waves face*..

The only issue I had of course was the miscommunication. Their relationship suffered because neither of them could be honest with one another. They felt the same way about each other, but both were too stubborn and not working through their trauma to come together. In actuality they almost were suffering from the same traumas and could have discovered this earlier, but of course they both were 19/20 and that's not fair for people their age. We're all dumb idiots learning to be adults so I understand why they couldn't figure themselves out.

Tarah DeWitt never misses. I was locked in from the first page to the last. The story was so beautiful, well written, and emotionally invested. The past and present timelines were well executed, which fully encompassed the complexities of both characters. That is something that I really loved. I love when we don't have to pick sides. When everything is told so succinctly that you feel like you're a friend witnessing this love story in motion. 10/10 would recommend.

Thank you, NetGalley, for this ARC!

3/5
1/5

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of this ebook!
I absolutely loved Tara DeWitt's other book Savour It, so when I saw this one I HAD to read it. However, I wish I hadn't because Savour It was much much better. The major downside for me of this book was the major miscommunication trope which is my least favourite trope and usually I can tolerate a little bit because, well, that's life. This was exclusively miscommunication and it just felt boring and whiny more than anything else.

Onto the positives, I do love a good second chance, marriage of convenience situation which was well set up in theory, each of them has one piece of the puzzle to make this shared ownership of the Santa Cruz building left to them by their grandmothers (that concept is so cute!). The chemistry between these two felt hot and cold to me though, some moments were sizzling (which TOOK LONG ENOUGH) and some felt a bit forced and lackluster especially early on. I remember DeWitt doing a great job of writing the journey with grief into her characters in Savour It, but it felt a little recycled at moments here.

So cute and fun! This was my first book by her and I will definitely be picking up more. I really enjoyed her writing style, and how easy it was to put myself in her shoes. Also loved the dual POV!!! Perfect for rom com fans!

Give me all the marriage of connivence tropes please and thank you. Deacon 😍 the character development of both was *chefs kiss*

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC

Cute! We love a Home Depot wannabe origin romance story. Second chance romance is always in style, and Tarah does a great job investing in her characters development, romantically and personally.

LaRynn and Deacon agree to a marriage of convenience to unlock funds and restore their shared inheritance, planning to part ways once the job is done. But as they navigate a crumbling building and their own unresolved history, they must decide if their partnership is just a business deal or something worth rebuilding for good.

This is my second book by Tarah DeWitt, and dare I say, it may have pushed her into auto-buy status. Her prose is SO well done, the characters are nuanced and well developed, and her plots are the perfect balance of light-hearted and reality. Is it a bit predictable, sure - but what good romance isn’t?

4/5 stars

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I'm a big, big fan of everything Tarah DeWitt, so you know I loved this one. I was an ARC reader on the original indie version and adored all the sexual tension, but this revised and expanded version takes the love story to another level. I've loved watching Tarah's writing grow from Rootbound to now, and I am absolutely looking forward to more from her in the future!

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I'm planning to update my review on my blog once I listen to the new audio version and experience it that way. Here's my original review:

The tension snaps and crackles, sparking off the page in such a delicious way – I could FEEL the unresolved issues between these two, and I couldn’t wait for them to figure things out. As a certified second chance romance hater (but big fan of DeWitt’s work), I was both excited and nervous to dig into this one. And I ended up loving it! These two hurt each other in the past, and their present day interactions showcased the fact that neither one has let that hurt go. They’ve spent years building back up their defenses, so entering into a marriage of convenience AND trying to live together in a home under construction is… not ideal. The tension – sexual and otherwise – was palpable, and I loved peeling back the layers of what makes each character tick. I actually thought that the reasons why they separated the first time around made complete sense, so it was easy to empathize with both characters and not lament the time spent apart (too much). It was also clear that they both grew and matured in the years since, slowly changing into people who might just be capable of making it work this time around.

The story follows LaRynn, a woman who has been avoiding the property that she inherited after her grandmother passed away. While the house might be the fresh start LaRynn has been needing in her life, she also knows that it comes with a whole lot of baggage – most of it revolving around the man who broke her heart eight years ago. At 18, LaRynn and Deacon had a no-strings fling that went horribly wrong when she caught feelings. He snapped her heart in two, and it has never quite recovered. So going back to the town where it all happened is troublesome enough… and that’s not the worst of it. LaRynn and Deacon each inherited half of the property, so they’ll need to work together to move forward. And Deacon is not making things easy. Somehow, LaRynn finds herself entering into a marriage of convenience, moving in to a disaster of a construction zone, and working on a major renovation with the man who drives her crazy.

Typically, it’s the tangled history between characters that makes second chance romances difficult for me to get into. In this case, I understood why they didn’t work out at 18, and I thought that they shared equal blame for things going so awry. That made it easy to root for them to find their way back together, and the tension is one of the things that makes this story so engrossing. Having both perspectives also helped, and I could see the love buried beneath that mountain of hurt. I loved that they were slowly repairing their relationship as they worked on building a home together, and the parallels were so interesting. Their foundation was faulty to begin with, so it took rebuilding from the ground up to get them to a solid place. The forced proximity/roommates situation paired with the marriage of convenience tied them together as they fought against the bond, which just took everything up another notch. And, while I liked LaRynn, I was totally gone for Deacon. He is such a sweetheart, so much kinder and more vulnerable than he might appear on the surface. The intimate moments between them were incredibly impactful, and having such a slow burn made the emotional connection leap to the forefront. These two already know that they work in the bedroom, they just need to find a way to communicate out of it. Yet again, DeWitt navigates the complexities of a difficult relationship in an engaging and immersive way, seamlessly blending lighter moments with heavy shots of angst. I loved it!

I think there is real potential here with this novel from Tarah DeWitt. Everyone has someone from the past, and you wonder, "What if?" Or not-- maybe you never thought about it again! But in this case, it's cute to see the past be a surprising opportunity instead of a sad reminder.

I just absolutely love the stories TD creates and the relationships between the characters are always so lovely 🥰

This book was quite enjoyable. I really liked getting the perspective from both of the main characters. It was a fun, slow burn.

Tarah Dewitt is now a gold-star auto-but author for me. This book has so much heart and the characters are complex, dynamic, flawed people who jump off the page. The second-chance romance makes sense and adds even more depth to LaRynn and Deacon’s individual and joint stories. I truly loved this story and was sobbing through the last third. This is a story I won’t soon forget.

This wasn’t really holding my interest, was kinda boring, and I really really wasn’t a fan of the characters, specially the heroine. The immaturity, childish acts, and pettiness were too much for me. I had to force myself to finish this book.

Those two just didn’t make sense together and I couldn’t see them working out as a couple, but on the other hand, they kinda do deserve each other.

I wanted to love this one, but it didn’t keep my attention. There were cute moments, but overall the miscommunication in this book was annoying. Many people thought this book was great so I think it was just not for me.
Thank you to NetGalley for the arc in exchange for my honest review!

Ok this is the cutest book ever! It officially got me out of my reading slump too. I loved the romance but I also loved how they grew together and all the depth they had. They had some problems but talked it out every time and I loved that. The communication was just ugh so good. I literally can't find anything wrong with this book. I’ll be looking forward to more of Tarah Dewitt’s releases.

I really struggled to get into LaRynn and Deacon’s story. I’m a sucker for a second chance romance and I really love Tarah’s writing and her other books, but for some reason I just kept putting this book down. I don’t know if it was too much of a slow burn or just slower paced than what I was in the mood for, but I think this was definitely a me issue and I’ll absolutely pick up her next book!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is my second Tarah DeWitt book I've tried and she just isn't for me, too fluffy or too lighthearted and just not for me. I also do not like the trope where kids are involved, so this became a DNF for me, I'm sorry! I wanted to love it!!

I loved this book so much! Just when I thought Savor It was my favorite Tarah DeWitt story, here comes The Co-op. Santa Cruz is my favorite place on earth and it holds so many memories to me. All the little glimpses at the location made this story so special. On top of that, of course, hooooooot tension and a beautiful shift in time to get the full story about the two main characters. This is a must read for all romance lovers!

I enjoyed the Co-op in it's orignal itieration, but this re-write was gold. I'm so happy that LaRynn and Deacon are getting a second, second chance.

I liked this book but it wasn’t really something I would read again. It has some of my favorite tropes but didn’t keep my attention as well as I had hoped.

I didn’t really love either MC in the start but they did grow on be in the end. I can’t say I connected with them or really liked them in the end though.

I’ll definitely give Tarah another shot with a different book and won’t let this book be my sole opinion of her as an author.